Personal Profession
by Mary Ellen Hamm
Summary: charlie becomes attached to a student who becomes his brother's next case.


Charlie Epps was not going to be late for his first day of class. However, the past few days have been wearing him down and he had accidentally slept in a bit longer than he intended. He was in such of a rush that he almost passed his own classroom. Before he could turn the handle, his friend and mentor Dr. Larry Fleinhardt stopped him.

"Charles, are you alright?" Larry asked.

Charlie finally had time to catch his breath. "I'm running a bit late for class."

Larry chucked a bit. "Well, don't make me late for your first class. I'll talk to you later, Charlie."

Charlie smiled politely, anxious about his first class of the season. However, confidently he grasped the doorknob and entered his classroom.

The classroom was empty and was extremely hot from the recent hot spell that had grasped the LA County.

He sat down his briefcase on his desk and turned around to the blank wipe board. He picked up the lonesome erase marker and filled the board with the equations that filled his head daily.

Slowly, the classroom filled up behind him. Whispers filled the room as the young professor kept writing on the board. As Charlie finished, he heaved a great sigh and turned around. His class was staring at him, waiting for him to make the first move.

"Good morning," Charlie finally spoke. 

Several people smiled but only a few people spoke back to him.

"Welcome to Applied Probability," he announced to the class. "I am Dr. Charles Epps and I will be leading you through this semester."

Most of the people in the class were paying attention to every word he was saying. One in particular was a girl in the 2nd row. She had her pen in her hand, ready to take notes when needed. She looked incredibly young: 16 or 17 at least. She had a very pleasant but tired face. Her blue eyes shone at him brightly, waiting to learn more. Charlie however changed his attention to the rest of the class.

"My name is Dr. Charles Epps and I will be leading you through this class…"

Charlie sat down, exhausted at the unwilling ness of his class to participate in his lesson. The only person who had was the girl in the 2nd row. She introduced herself as "Mia" and gave a hope to Charlie that the whole class wouldn't be a waste.

The class filed out, talking about their other subjects, oblivious to the professor at his desk. The girl in the 2nd row however, lagged behind and came up personally to his desk.

"Excuse me, professor?" She asked, diverting his attention to the papers in front of him to the girl in his presence. "I just wanted to say that my name is Amelia Porter… and I wanted to say how excited I am in your class," She admitted, going a bit pink in her cheeks.

"I'm very glad to have in you my class, Amelia," Charlie held out his hand to the girl and turning even more pink, she took his hand. "You seem to be rather interested in the field. What are you intending on majoring in?"

"Well," she started slowly, "I had thought about perhaps something along the lines of forensics…but I had been thinking about being a statistician," she admitted.

Charlie couldn't help but emit a small smile. "Well, if you need any help on deciding, please let me know."

Amelia, still a bit flushed, nodded her head in thanks and then headed out the door.

A minute after the girl left, Dr. Larry Fleinhardt entered the classroom.

"Was that Mia Porter that just left your classroom?" He asked.

Charlie looked a bit suspicious, "Yes, why?"

Larry smiled, apparently amused at something. "Bright girl: Had her last year in one my classes. She had to work hard, but in the end she managed straight A's." Charlie seemed confused at the information and continued to look on his desk for a certain misplaced paper. "She looks young, doesn't she?" This caught Charlie's attention.

"She does," Charlie agreed.

"She's 21, I believe. Her friend embarrassed her last year by asking that I report to the class that she had just turned 21. That was April I think."

"Is there a point to telling me all this information?" Charlie asked, hoping to understand the method to his friend's madness.

"Oh, well, she seemed rather – taken – with you." Dr. Fleinhardt's smile stretched across his face.

"Taken?" Charlie asked, suddenly interested with the conversation.

Larry smiled even more. "I'm not going to pursue this conversation if you don't want me to,"

"I don't…" Charlie said suddenly.

"She asked me who were last year," Larry continued.

"Larry, she is my student," Charlie insisted.

"But not all day," Larry added, then with a large grin on his face, walked out the door.

With all the things going on, Charlie didn't have time for dating. Or at least that was what he kept telling himself as he walked to the library. As he walked to the front desk, he noticed that the regular librarian was not there. Instead, Mia was behind the counter, furiously reading for one of her classes. She however almost knocked over her coffee when she saw him walk up. 

"Afternoon, Mia, "He said calmly, trying not to show the small flutter that just happened in his stomach.

"Professor Epps! I'm sorry, I didn't hear anyone coming. I'm trying to understand this theory – well anyway, can I help you?"

"I was just wondering where Mable is. I needed to talk to her about some books she might be getting in."

"She left for New York last week. She'll be there for a month I'm afraid. I'm filling in for the meantime," She explained. "However, she checks in everyday before closing, if you want, I can give a message to her?"

"Oh, just tell her I stopped by to inquire about the new books was supposed to get in. Tell her it's of no urgency," He explained as she scribbled down a note. He noticed her incredibly neat and beautiful handwriting.

"When she calls in today, I'll make sure she gets the message," She flushed as their eyes caught one another.

"Thank you. Well I'll see you on Wednesday. Don't study too hard, you may hurt yourself," He laughed.

She smiled rather nervously, "I'll try not to, professor."

Charlie started to walk away but then turned around. "By the way, Dr. Fleinhardt says hello."

At the mention of Larry's name, Mia winced a bit and turned a rather dark shade of pink. "Tell him I said hello as well."

Charlie smiled at his accomplishment and walked back out into the pleasant sunshine.

Charlie stepped into the courtyard, and immediately he again ran into his friend.

"Where are you off to?" Charlie inquired after his friend.

"Oh the library," He replied. "I have to visit my niece who's working there."

"Your niece?"

"I believe you already met her actually," Larry produced a smile that covered his entire face.

"I have?" Charlie asked, his voice sounding incredibly surprised; although he had a feeling he knew his answer.

"Mia is my niece," He replied proudly.

Charlie was expecting some relationship between them. He had not known students to confide personal information with any professor. But the link between them was indeed surprising.

"Your niece?" Charlie asked again, in complete surprise. "But how is that possible?"

"I have a sister who lives in Virginia; this is her daughter. We talk on the phone a lot, but don't have much physical contact. She's having a lot of health problems now. Mia was going to stay in Virginia to help her, but her mother insisted she go to college. She suggested Cal State so she could be nearer to me, the last member of her family."

Charlie considered this for a moment. It sounded plausible. And would make sense about how he knew so much about her.

"How come you didn't tell me the other day?"

"Well," Larry said a bit sheepishly. "I wanted to see what your reaction would be."  
"You are a tad bit too clever for you own good," Charlie chucked.

"She'll be off in a few minutes," Larry explained. "Why don't you guys go chat about math or something."

"Larry… I understand what you're trying to do, and I appreciate it. I really do. But with all the new cases I'm helping Don with, it's impossible to have a – social life."

"Charles, you must have learned by now that nothing is impossible. But then you do admit you like my niece?"

Charlie thought about his reply, nothing came up. "Larry… I…. Look, if you want, I'll take her out to get something to eat."

"Charles I merely offered up the opportunity. You decide what to do next." Larry said and gave him another enormous smile and went in the direction of the library.

Charlie thought for a minute a decided to give into Larry's plan. He walked back in the direction of the library, taking out his cell phone as he went.

"Hello?" Mr. Epps answered the phone.

"Hi pop," Charlie replied.

"Charlie, how's it going?"

"I just wanted to tell you that I won't be able to make dinner tonight."

"Is there something wrong?" His dad asked.

"No pop just got a meeting. I'll tell you about it later."

"Is this something to do with the new case you're working on?"

"No, this has nothing to do with it." Charlie explained. Then he saw Mia coming out of the library, walking alongside Larry. "Dad look, I really have to go. I'll talk to you later," he quickly hung up the cell phone and walked in their direction.

Larry was talking to Mia about something, but saw Charlie coming and he gave her a kiss on the cheek and then quickly left.

Mia waved goodbye to her uncle and then kept walking, oblivious to her professor that was walking in her direction.

"Hey Mia," Charlie said, trying to get his attention.

At the sound of his voice, she dropped everything that she was carrying; which included several textbooks and notebooks.

A bit upset at himself for startling the girl, he helped her pick up her books.

"I'm sorry… I didn't mean to frighten you," He apologized.

"No no, it wasn't your fault," The girl explained, turning a slight shade of pink. "I've been a tad skittish for the past few months. I should have been looking where I was going."

"Are you sure you're feeling okay? You look a bit tired."

"I haven't gotten much sleep in the past, oh year. The doctor says my mom may go any day. It's all I can do to stay awake in class," She explained.

"Do you want to go get something to eat? Perhaps talk about it?" He asked, although hesitating for a moment.

Mia looked up at him in mild surprise. "Sure, if you're not too busy to worry about my problems that is."

"Not at all," He smiled generously.

"Then I'd love to, Professor." 

"Since we won't be on campus, just call me Charlie," This time he felt his face rise up in temperature.

"Then I would be glad to, Charlie," she smiled. "I have a car; we can use that if you want."

"Only if I get to pick the place," He agreed.

She nodded, "Sounds fair to me."

"Are we getting close?" She asked as she turned down yet another residential street.

"Just a few more blocks. This place is really good, it's just incredibly well hidden."

Mia nodded and went back to concentrating on driving. After a few seconds of silence, she asked the question that had been bugging her since their meeting near the library. "Did my uncle put you up to this?"

Charlie laughed, but only inside his head. She obviously knows her uncle very well. "He suggested me getting to know you a bit better and insisted you get to know more people." He hated lying to her, but he didn't want anything to happen – yet. 

She smiled, obviously relieved. "I just though…. Oh never mind. I always seem to look at the glass half-empty."

"You're not suggesting…" Charlie tried to start.

"Don't worry about it. I just can't seem to let good things happen to me." She said solemnly as she slowed down before the stop sign. She took this opportunity to get a good look at him. For the second time in the day his stomach gave a flutter: this one, on a bigger scale.

They both looked away as she started driving again. Charles noticed the small pizzeria coming up. "It's one street up, on the right." 

"Oh, now I see it! Wow, that really was well-hidden." 

Charlie felt a pit in his stomach as he saw a too familiar car in the small parking lot.

Mia obviously noticed the change in his appearance because she asked: "Are you all right?"

Charlie tried to shrug off the thought and enjoy his company. "I'm fine."  
They walked into the small restaurant, noticing that is was almost deserted. Except for the couple sitting in the far back was Amita. She hardly recognized him: mainly because she was incredibly engrossed with the man sitting across from her.

Charlie tried to put Amita out of his mind as Mia ordered her slice. He paid for both of their slices (although Mia tried to persuade him not to); they picked a table far away from Amita and her new boyfriend.

Charlie purposely sat with his back to Amita, not wanting him to notice her.

"Are you sure you're okay Prof – Charlie?" Her cheeks went a bit pink as she said his name.

Charlie looked up from his slice. "Yes I'm fine. Don't worry about me. I'm worried about you."

Her ears turned pink at his concern. "I think once it's all over I'll be fine. I've already lot one parent…" her voice trailed off.

"How did your dad die?" He asked.

"In the line of duty; He was an FBI agent. Here in LA actually. After he died, we moved to Virginia to live with my grandmother. I haven't been to LA since he died. Of course, I was only two at the time. I don't remember him much," She explained.

"My mother died awhile ago, so I know how you feel. It was cancer," Charlie explained.

"That's what my mom has too. But in all honesty, I think she's just given up on life. With me gone, Uncle Larry out here, and of course, my dad. I think it's just too much for her to take anymore. I know she's suffering, but when she goes she'll be in a better place and she won't be hurting."

"That's a really good way to think about it," Charlie agreed. "My brother works at the FBI."

"He does?" She asked, sounding interested.

Charlie nodded. "I've been helping him for awhile on several cases."

"I would love to be an FBI agent," Mia mused. "I told my mom once but she's afraid I might be killed in action, like my dad."

"I believe Don said the agency has only lost two men in the past ten years," Charlie offered the information.

"Really? Well, I'll think about it. But no now. I'm also trying to move into an apartment. That's another reason I'm so tired. I've been trying to paint the walls, reupholster all the furniture… It's a nightmare."

"Perhaps I can help. I have a pretty open week," He offered.

Mia's eyes lit up. "Would you really? Oh, I guilt tripped you into it."

Charlie Chucked. "Not at all! Actually, I haven't had some good fun in awhile. Maybe this will do me some good too!"

Mia, for the first time Charlie had seen her that day, looked genuinely happy.


End file.
